How to Build a Wicked-Fast System

One answer is to figure out new ways to push your systems to the limit. Make your components work harder, faster, and hotter than they ever could out-of-the-box. The best way I know to do this is to move beyond the typical air-cooled system, and take the time to install a water-cooling unit.

As you know, most PCs cool themselves with air. They use one or more fans to move room-temperature air into the PC's box, where it cools the components. The hot air is then pushed out of the case as more cooler air is drawn in. But for super-fast systems, air just isn&'t enough!

Instead, consider cooling your PCs' components with water. Of course, you'll still have fans in the case; in this case, the fans will cool the power supply. But with water, the heavy lifting of heat dissipation is now done by fluids. A water-cooling unit is essentially a closed system that moves cool water through tubing into the system. The cool water draws heat from the CPU (processor) and GPU (video cards), becoming heated in the process. The hot water then moves out of the case, where it is cooled, then rerouted back into the case for a new, cooling journey.

It's easier than you might think. You should be able to install a water-cooling system, including OS and driver installation, in about two hours. At the finish, you'll have an ultra-cool PC that's fast enough to please any serious gaming customer you might have. Let's dig in.

Ingredients

Here are the components you'll need for this project, along with specific products I recommend:

Case: I especially like the Lian-Li PCV-1200Plus. It's an above-average mid-tower case, constructed of aluminum. The Lian-Li case also has an unusual layout: It inverts the typical power supply and motherboard locations, which allows for superior airflow and cooling.

Processor: My recommendation is the AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 Processor. I love this processor—it's fast-fast-fast!

Motherboard: The DFI Lanparty NF4-SLI DR is a high-quality motherboard with an excellent capability for tweaking to get the most out of any processor you attach to it.

Video Cards: I recommend you get two BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC Video Cards (with Water Blocks). In my opinion, this is simply the best water-cooled video card on the market.

Audio Card: I like the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty. This sound card combines the highest quality sound with the ability to offload sound functionality from the host processor.

Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver5 is an efficient compound that fills in any microscopic crevices between the CPU and the water block, allowing the most efficient transfer of heat.

Hard Drives: You'll need two. I recommend the Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 Hard Drive. It's the biggest, fastest SATA drive currently available.

DVD Drive: The Plextor 740A Internal E-IDE (ATAPI) DVD-R/RW is a fast, stable, and reliable DVD-RW drive.

Monitor: A big system deserves a big screen. The Samsung 214T is a large (21 inches diagonal), well-designed monitor that's equally useful for playing games and surfing the Web.

Water Cooling Unit: This is the device that does the cooling. It constantly moves cold water over the CPU, pulling heat away and allowing you to push the processor beyond its rated limits. My personal favorite is the Koolance Exos-2.

CPU Water Block: The Koolance CPU-305 is an excellent, well-machined water block for your CPU.

Power Supply: Your overclocked system won't just sip power, it will chug it! The PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 850 SSI is an almost thousand-watt power supply that can provide all this Recipe's rig will need.

Memory: You need something that is fast with a high tolerance for overclocking. For this Recipe, I recommend you get four Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25 Memory Sticks. Six Steps to Installing a Water-Cooling Unit

Step 1.) Unpack and Check Components: Begin by unpacking all the components listed in the Ingredients section above. Visually inspect every part to make sure there are no obvious defects or damage. Once you're done, unscrew the retaining nut from the back of the case, and remove the case's side panel. Note that the nut is on the back, but it's attached to a retaining clip that doesn&'t come off from the machine. Pull the nut back, and you can pull the side panel off the case.

Step 2.) Working with the Motherboard: Install the CPU on your motherboard. Then install the water-block onto the motherboard. The water-block is the heatsink with the in-and-out water connections.

Next, clean the heat spreader on the CPU (and the bottom of the water block) with a lint-free cloth and some isopropyl alcohol. Note: The heat spreader is the metal piece attached to the top of the CPU—it's not the aforementioned heatsink.

Once you have both surfaces clean, apply a tiny bit of the Arctic Silver heat sink compound over the top of the metal heat spreader and on the CPU itself. After you have covered the surface of the CPU heat spreader with compound, wipe off most of the compound, making sure you can read the numbering on the top of the processor. What's left behind will still be enough to fill any microscopic pits in the heat spreader surface, thus improving the heat exchange between the water block and the CPU.

Next, put another tiny dab of the Arctic Silver over the CPU heat spreader, and apply a thin film over the bottom of the water block where it contacts the heat spreader. Make sure none of the Arctic Silver is anywhere but on top of the CPU heat spreader where it contacts the water block. After that, snap the RAM into the DIMM sockets. Finally, flip the case on its side and install the motherboard.

Step 3.) Install the Audio Card: With the case still open, now is a good time to pop in the audio card. (You will install the video cards later, after you make the water connections to the water blocks already on the cards.) The audio card should seat firmly in the PCI slot, and should screw into the slot cover area of the case without incident.

Step 4.) Install the Power Supply: Install the power supply into its compartment on the bottom of the case. Then connect the power supply's 24-pin ATX and 4-pin AUX cables to the motherboard.

Step 5.) Install the Hard Drives and DVD-RW: With the case still open, install the hard drives into their slots on the bottom of the case. Do this by screwing the supplied screws into the Hitachi hard drives; then slide the drives into the rails at the bottom of the case. (By the way, the case has room for six 3.5-inch drives in the bottom drive compartment alone, so you have a lot of room for future expansion.)

Next, connect the power-supply's SATA cables (included with the motherboard) to the drives. Then connect the two SATA data cables from the drives to the motherboard.

After the hard drives are installed, install the DVD-RW drive and plug in its power and data cables. The installation process here is similar to installing the hard disk—the only difference being that the DVD-RW drive should be installed right-side up.

Step 6.) Install the Water-Cooling System: Now you're ready to install the Exos-2 Water Cooling System. Begin by installing a slot adapter on an open PCI slot cover. These are the little metal parts you pull out and throw away whenever you install an expansion card. The slot adapter is the interface port between the water hoses inside the system and the water-cooling unit on the top of the machine. Koolance provides one slot adapter that has power, water in, and water out.

Next, connect and secure the tubing to the CPU water block. Now connect and secure tubing to the two water blocks for the video cards (one on each). Then connect and secure tubing to the slot adapter. Plug the two video cards into their respective PCIE slots. Then connect the included PCIE-SLI circuit card between the two cards. Finally, connect the slot adapter tubes to the Exos-2 unit.

The only thing left to do is to fill the reservoir with the included cooling fluid. This fluid is nothing more than distilled water that has been spiked with an anti-foaming agent and blue coloring.

After Installation

After you've completed these six installation steps, do a close check of your work. Make sure your connections are all tight, your cables are all connected, and your cards are all plugged firmly in place.

Next, move the case to its normal operating position, but don&'t close the case just yet. Now's the time to check for any possible leaks: Water plus motherboards equals disaster! First, do a visual inspection of the connections. There should be no water leaking from either the hoses themselves or the connection points where the hoses come together. If you have a leak, you'll see blue liquid where it shouldn't be. If you do notice any leaks, check the connections and make sure the tubing is installed snugly to the fittings.

Assuming you have no leaks, power up the system. At the BIOS screen, you'll see information about your installed components, so make sure it sees all the memory you've installed. Set up a RAID-0 array in the BIOS. Install the Windows OS and the required applications. Make sure the system is running fine at its baseline now.

Overclocking

With the water-cooled system at your disposal, let's do some overclocking. Even though you've built a wicked-fast system, we want the system to work even harder.

Overclocking is as much voodoo science as anything else, so undertake this task slowly and carefully. Watch how high you can clock up the CPU speeds, memory speeds, video card GPU, and memory timings. Mostly, overclocking is a game of trial and error. You'll see your fair share of lockups and blue screens of death. Don't give up until you find a happy medium. While your mileage may vary, I was able to get the CPU on my system clocked to 3.5 GHz, and the machine was still rock-solid stable.

Once you've got the CPU and memory stable, start clocking up your video cards. The standard 7800GTX ships standard with a 430-MHz GPU speed and the memory clocked at 1.2 GHz. BFG overclocks this card to 490 MHz/1.3 GHz, and this will perform admirably with no artifacting (which you will see when you overtax or overheat your video card).

By now your water-cooled system should be up, running at very high speed, and stable. If so, congratulations. Tell your customers to fire up Half-Life 2 or Quake 4—and enjoy!

MICHAEL WROOBEL has been involved with computers since he was 13 years old, starting with an Altair 8080. Since then, he has worked with just about every PC on the planet.